PHC to hear plea for recovery of abducted KP minister

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court will hear a petition on Wednesday seeking the recovery of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Public Health Engineering Fazal Shakoor Khan, who has been missing since he was allegedly taken by armed men near the M-1 toll plaza in Peshawar.

The petition was filed on Tuesday by the minister's brother, retired Major Anwar Aziz, a day after the incident. A kidnapping case has also been registered at Chamkani police station under Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which deals with kidnapping or abduction. Dawn reported that both the petition and the FIR were filed on the complaint of the minister's brother.

According to the FIR, Fazal Shakoor Khan was travelling from Charsadda to Peshawar to attend a session of the provincial assembly. His driver, Qaiser Khan, and police constable Mujahid were in the vehicle with him.

The complaint states that armed men in black uniforms and plain clothes intercepted the vehicle near the motorway toll plaza, fired at its tyres, forced the occupants out, and took them to an undisclosed location. The official vehicle was reportedly left at the scene.

The petition, filed through lawyer Bashir Khan Wazir, asks the high court to direct police and other law enforcement agencies to recover the provincial minister. It also seeks the formation of a high-level inquiry committee of senior police officials to investigate the incident and determine his whereabouts.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of police, Peshawar Capital City Police Officer, SSP Operations, and other officials have been named as respondents. The petitioner has requested that if the minister is being held by any state institution, he should be produced before the court and released if his detention is found to be unlawful.

The case is fixed for hearing on September 23 before a division bench comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel.

Minute Mirror reported that a video circulated by PTI purportedly shows masked armed men approaching the minister's vehicle, with one individual opening a car door while another fires toward the tyres. The authenticity of the footage has not been independently established.

PTI held a protest in Charsadda on Tuesday against the alleged abduction. PTI Charsadda president and MPA Arshad Umarzai condemned the incident and criticised the provincial government. KP Information Minister Shafi Jan also condemned the alleged removal of the minister, describing it as a serious issue involving constitutional and democratic rights.